[Source can be found at the end of the article]
1. Testing the teachers integrity
A 9th grade student in my World History class came to my classroom after school to make up a quiz. She sat down across from my desk and when I looked up I noticed that her shirt was unbuttoned almost completely down to her waist. She was wearing a scarf, so at a glance she just looked normal, but she had actually unbuttoned her shirt almost all the way down right before entering my classroom, alone. I honestly thought for a second that the school may have paid her to test how much integrity I had as a male teacher. It was uncomfortable.
BetterThanUsually
2. Never again!
I had a student (freshman-15 years old) send me a picture of herself in lingerie with the line, “What can I do to get an A?”
Had to protect myself. Turned it in to administration. It was a very awkward meeting with her parents.
bg357
3. Best advice given
Had two students, girls, ask to go to the restroom and I allowed them. They didn’t come back until class was over. The girls explained they went to the bathroom because one of them was taking a pregnancy test. It was positive. I said congratulations then recommended they go speak to the counselor or school nurse.
eltibbs
4. Lost in translation
I teach english in Germany, and sometimes taking literal translations can cause a problem. Once while we were talking about going to the beach, I had a student ask my why she couldn’t say I creamed my pants.
Now in German, to say that you apply sun lotion, you say ich creme mich or literally translated: I cream myself. As a result, a native english speaker friend of hers decided to joke and say that she should never say I creamed my pants in english and not say why.
So she asked me. Her english teacher. In front of the class, who also began demanding to know.
Needless to say, I went bright red and called to have an early break.
CaptainNeiliam
5. It did what?
My english teacher was put in a very uncomfortable situation a few years ago when one day during class one of the girls asked if she could use the bathroom and naturally he said in a little bit. 5 mins later she raises her hand again and my teacher replied Ill write you a pass right now, then the girl said “never mind, it went back in.” The look on my teachers face was amazing.
ae86forlife
6. Starting womanhood
I am a gay male teacher. One day when I was teaching middle school and one of my female students told me she had to go to the bathroom.
She came back and told me in front of the class that her period came. It was her first period. She had no idea what to do, she was not wearing anything, and she was in great pain.
You could see the blood coming in. I calmly told her to go to the nurse.
And to my student, Brittney. It is ok to cringe at the fact that you told your teacher and 20 other students that you started your adventure to womanhood. Because of you, I carry pads in my desk.
dinosaregaylikeme
7. A bit too forward
When I was teaching high school, a student named Austin found out it was my 45th birthday and launched into a spiel in front of the class how I should be sure to get a colonoscopy as I was now at that age.
Orcapa
8. Lesson not learned
I teach students with intellectual disabilities. Imagine being an 8 year old in a teenager’s body. These kids are just honest and always say what is on their mind. Not a lot of understanding of social norms and socially appropriate behavior.
One of my students comes up to me and asks to speak to me outside of the classroom. I thought maybe he was dealing with something personal and needed to talk about it so I said ok.
He proceeds to tell me that I am “the sexiest thing he has ever seen.” I had to try to squash that right away. I told him that he can’t say that to be because I am his teacher, it’s not appropriate, etc.
After that, he asked for a hug.
itsawindmill
9. Embarrassing the teacher
In middle school during sex ed the teacher was preaching abstinence until marriage. The teacher was single so a student asked him if he was a virgin. Awkward for the teacher because he didn’t know which was worse: admit he was a hypocrite or admit he was a 40 year old virgin. He turned bright red and let us go to recess early.
YaThatGirl
10. Informing students as best as possible
I had a student tell me (quietly in the back of the room) how she was struggling to concentrate and would likely need to leave in class for an extended period of time because she had a UTI.
I spoke with her after class making sure she was alright. I had to find a very delicate way of explaining the importance of peeing after sex and gently reminding her to always use protection, without directly saying those words. I am a male and it was in a conservative town, so I could have gotten into serious trouble for not encouraging abstinence only. I just wanted to make sure she was informed and safe.
NoHomersAllowed
11. Lets pretend this never happened
Ran into one of my students at the store. The only things in my cart were duct tape, tampons, and motor oil. He looked at my items, and his eyes got large. Not sure what he was imagining I was going to do, but we both acted like it never happened the next day in school.
alwaysanemergency
12. No respect for the teacher
I’m a new teacher, in my early twenties with a student who is almost too old to be in High School (21). I was really short with him one day because he was being a jerk, and he responded “I know why you’re so crabby today. You’re mad because your boyfriend beat you.”
He then yelled at me the whole way down the stairs as I escorted him to the principal, demanding that I tell him why he was in trouble.
Made me super uncomfortable, because he was almost my age and clearly didn’t respect me as a teacher. His comments were way over the line and he got removed from my class for it.
Brant393
13. What a way to word it!
When I did student teaching at a high school, one male student in the string ensemble I was leading asked, in front of others, if he could learn cello “because he want to play something he could hold between his legs.
Back2Bach
14. Awkward question
I teach middle school, I hope that counts.
Last week, a 13 year old boy asked me what happens when a girl gets turned on. All I could say was, “Go ask an experienced friend. I’m going to pretend this didn’t just happen.”
I’m a young female teacher. Yikes
TheNewHumanism
15. Curious and awkward
Teach middle school so…most of the time it’s awkward.
Fairly soon after I’d broken up with a long term boyfriend, a student asked me why we’d broken up (I swear, it wasn’t weird that the kid knew – they’d seen me with him around town). So that was fun. Then the kid threatened to “take him out” for me.
A sixth grader asked me how reproduction can define an organism as living vs non-living if boys cannot make babies. Shouldn’t this mean that boys are non-living? I sent that kid right on down to the health teacher.
yayscienceteachers
16. Kids sure do learn fast
I teach English in Japan. On this day, the principal was observing the class.
The students were in elementary school and we were going over adjectives. I asked the students to draw something on the board that related to the adjective. For example, “Draw for me something that is/was big.”
When I got to “Draw for something that is/was cheap,” some students showed me an eraser or candy. But one student drew a stick figure with an afro.
I’m American, so naturally, in my mind, I freaked out. Since the principal was in the room I had to act professionally. I asked the student why he drew what he has drawn. Apparently he learned about slavery in the US and learned how much slave owners paid.
OrangeDot710
17. Foreign teacher put in the most awkward situation
I teach high school in Japan. At this particular school, the kids are low academic so are gonna turn out to be restaurant cooks, farmers, and the like, and the girls are obsessed with finding a husband by the time they graduate. Sometimes, those husbands turn out to be younger teachers, so I (24 at the time) got hit on a lot.
The most awkward moment was when a group of girls came to clean the teachers room (Japanese students clean their own schools everyday) and several of them came with their skirts rolled higher and kept bending over to clean, giving me full on and deliberate panty shots.
With the language barrier between me and my coworkers I was really worried about this, legit stressing over it all afternoon before I decided to tell my supervisor. She just laughed and said “girls will be girls.”
That was pretty tame compared to what female foreign teachers are put through at low academic schools.
ollemad
18. Bad timing
My mom is a high school teacher, and told me this story.
She had to call a parent because their kid was being a troublemaker in class, and the parent was giving the typical “You must be wrong, my little boy would never do such a thing.” excuses. So she laid out what would happen detention wise and then hung up, but accidentally set it to speaker phone instead. Another teacher comments on the futility of that call to the parent and she responds with “Yeah, well he is probably going to be cleaning toilets for the rest of his life anyways.” while the father was still on the line. Suffice to say, an apology had to be made.
TheCrippledKing
19. What is the hardest part of a teachers job?
I teach English in Russia at a private school and once had a very self-assured rich brat ask me if I’d ever smoked marijuana, I told him that wasn’t an appropriate question, he then said “But your job must be very hard, being paid to just sit there and talk in your native language?”
I’m rather pleased that I quite quickly answered “the only hard part of my job is pretending I like you.
Henners1991
20. Just pretend that didnt happen
School counselor on hall duty. 14 year old I’ve been working with puts his arms around my shoulders. “Yo, Ms O’Hara, when we gonna go out?”
Me: [did I just hear that?!] I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you?
Kid: “ah never mind, man”
Uhhh.
ceruleanohara
21. Keeping it professional
Worked in an all girls school as a fresh, young, male teacher. Your classic, skirt, blouse proper private school.
Many awkward love letters and a couple drunk grad moments while I was supervising.
Just rolled with it, was flattered secretly but kept it professional. Many of them, now that time has passed, are close friends.
why_you_always_lie
22. Be nice in math class or get out!
One of my very good looking male friends is a science/maths teacher. He’s one of those mad people that loves to make maths fun and honestly his classes are like a damn performance. It’s beautiful but a lot of the girls in the class just giggle and ask him if he has a girlfriend. He kept deflecting them and concentrated on making the class fun but then they got nasty to a quiet girl he “paid too much attention to” (she was actually interested in math and he gave her some extra material after class that he thought she’d like).
He fully put his foot down and demanded a parent meeting with all of the girls in question parents and told them straight up they could either act like mature people or get out and that he didn’t deserve to be borderline sexually harassed while working. Most of the parents were just mortified their daughters would behave like that but a few were like “it’s a compliment!” etc. Luckily admin were on his side.
koukla1994
23. Getting a bit too personal with questions
Subbed for a high school Spanish class one day. A female upperclassman showed up during my planning hour looking for the normal Spanish teacher. After being informed of the teacher’s absence, she stuck around and initiated small talk, claiming she was a teacher’s aide in gym and wasn’t needed on this day.
Based only on my own instinct, she seemed a little too friendly for having never met me before. Just felt off right from the start. I propped my classroom door open and didn’t really give her much feedback as I prepared for class but she kept talking, and it kept getting more personal.
Without any prompting, she began explaining how she’d moved out of her parents’ house (she appeared to be 16 or 17) and now lived with three college-aged males while she worked as a waitress at what sounded like a strip club. That’s typically not the type of thing to open up to a random substitute teacher you met five minutes ago. She segued from that to men’s fetishes, and how some of the people she served had a thing for pregnant women. It seemed like she was angling to see if I’d open up about my own interests; that wasn’t going to happen.
I try to be a good listener for my students under most circumstances but this one set off some alarms. I stood up, asked where the drinking fountain was (already knew, but needed an excuse), then promptly left the room and didn’t return until my planning hour had concluded.
I left school that day wondering if I was just being paranoid or whether a girl with that kind of story is something I should have reported to the front office (or whether it’s a home life thing and thus out of a school’s control). One way or another, it probably tops the awkward teaching mountain for me so far.
rake2204
24. This unfortunate substitute teacher
I was a long term substitute in a rural high school right of college. I was teaching history and this girl (probably 16) was texting the entire time without letting up, even after I warned her repeatedly. Finally I confiscate the phone. The rule was if your phone was taken the only person who could get it back was a parent/guardian at the end of the day due to the fact the school was dealing with the backlash of a major sexting scandal.
During lunch I am setting up a lesson for the next class and the girl comes back into the classroom and asks for her phone back in which I tell her it was already turned into the office. At this point you can tell she is getting annoyed and asked me to call down and get it back for her in which I tell her I can’t.
She begins to bawl telling me that her parents were out of town until Saturday and being that it was a three day weekend the earliest she could get it back was Tuesday afternoon. I tell her I am sorry for that but the rules were the rules. After I tell her that she immediately switches her tune and begins to ask me about my wife and son and I tell her it is neither the time nor place to discuss it. With zero humor in her voice she looks at me in the eye and tells me if I call down to request her phone back she will give me a blowjob. Without skipping a beat I immediately re-open the door she closed and wave for the teacher across the hall to come into the room. When the teacher comes in the student storms out in huff.
I explain to the teacher what happened and immediately report it to the Principal who calls the girl in. When the Principal and school counselor are talking to her she admits that she offered to blow me.
Girl gets sent back to class and the Principal calls the Superintendent and this snowballs all the way to a meeting with the student, her parents, school administrators and their lawyer the next week. Parents are obviously irate and accuse me of molesting their daughter and luckily there was enough evidence to prove nothing happened. After the parents realize their daughter was the source of this massive embarrassment they decide to pull her out and homeschool her.
Luckily, I was only there for another week but I decided to stop subbing after that.
godbullseye
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